This has been an ongoing project of mine for a while now. My goal has been to create the perfect machine for playing old DOS and Windows games that will just simply not run, even in the XP/Vista Compatibility modes. Now in this day and age, yeah you can say "DOSBox", or even "MS Virtual Machine 2007", but then that really takes the fun out of it IMO.
So for this project, I originally wanted a computer with a 486 processor, but unfortunately I could not get ahold of one. We had got rid of our IBM PS/1 a looong time ago. So instead I turned to our old family computer, an IBM Aptiva. We had upgraded to this from the PS/1 back in 1996.
Original Specs were:
- 2 GB HD
- 32 MB of RAM
- Intel Pentium Processor (150 MHz)
- 1 MB onboard Trident Video
- 16x CDROM Drive
- 3.5in Floppy Drive
- MWAVE Soundcard/Modem (28.8) ISA
- Windows 95
What I have done, first of all, is take out that godforsaken MWAVE card. The modem part got zapped shortly after we got it, so we replaced it with an 8 bit ISA US Robotics card. I took that out though, as I have no use for modems anymore. I then replaced that with a Sound Blaster 16.
Next, I re-formated the hard drive, and put on DOS 6.22 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11. I feel that this configuration is more compatible for what I want to do than having Windows 95. Plus, this takes up less hard drive space, as I am limited to only 2 GB. Although, I suppose I could add a second 2GB drive now that I think about it.
I then put in an ISA 3COM NIC. It only runs at 10 Mbps, but then I am not really doing any heavy network stuff. Just so I can get files to it without having to go back and forth with a floppy disk.
I am not done with this project yet though! What I plan on doing next, is getting some cache on this thing. The computer doesn't have any, but it has two COAST slots on it. I plan on getting some that I just found very soon, Corsair to be exact.
For upgrading the video, I will probably look into getting an ATI 3D RAGE II PCI card. These seem to be hard to find though, especially with 4 MB on it.
The original CDROM drive, I am keeping on. I plan on adding a 5 1/4 Floppy drive as well though, because I have a game that is on that format, plus there are other games I will buy that will be on this format.
I will probably have to get a new hard drive too. The one in it is a Maxtor, and it is starting to go out on me.
The RAM modules themselves are SIMMS, I am not going to touch them though. 32 MB is PLENTY of memory IMO.
When it's all said and done though, the build should look like this:
- 2GB Hard Drive
- 32 MB of RAM
- Intel Pentium Processor (150) w/ 512k cache
- 4 MB ATI 3D RAGE II PCI card
- Creative Sound Blaster 16 ISA card
- 3COM NIC ISA
- 5.25in Floppy Drive
- 3.5in Floppy Drive
- 16x CDROM Drive
- MS DOS 6.22 & MS Windows for Workgroups 3.11
So now here are the pictures:
This is the motherboard, the old AT style!
These two pictures are the front and back of the riser card, which contain the ISA and PCI slots.
These are the slots for COAST.
This here is the nasty MWAVE card I took out. That puppy was huge!
Last but not least, this is the Sound Blaster 16 card that I replaced the MWAVE card with!
I decided I will do this series in "parts". Part one of course is what you just read. The next part (which will be coming soon) will be about the software and configuration.